UN Misconceptions

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WEEKLY NEWS SPECIAL ISSUE of: 27-10-2001   - Liberian timber sanctions

Global Witness says certain United Nations' reports on the situation within 
Liberia must be treated with caution.
Please find below its Press Release.

Paolo (anb-bia brussels)
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PRESS RELEASE           25th October 2001

UN Misconceptions over Liberian timber sanctions threaten regional security

The United Nations Security Council will debate the sanctions regime on 
Liberia on Friday 26th October 2001, including the controversy on whether 
or not to impose sanctions on the country's timber trade. This latter issue 
has been clouded by two UN-commissioned reports, according to a briefing 
issued by Global Witness today.

The recent report of UN Secretary-General concerning the humanitarian 
impact of imposing sanctions on Liberia's timber exports is seriously 
flawed by inaccuracies which overstate timber related jobs by 100%, and 
related dependents by many times that. In addition, the October 2001 report 
of the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia, whilst confirming the continued 
links between the timber industry and arms trafficking, has made two 
recommendations related to the timber industry. Neither of these 
recommendations addresses the timber/arms links, and one will promote a 
logging frenzy.

This latter recommendation reads: The United Nations should impose a ban on 
all round log exports from Liberia from July 2002 and strongly encourage 
local operators to diversify into wood processing before that date.

This recommendation will encourage a logging frenzy in the upcoming dry 
season as operators try to beat the export ban, a repeat of the 1991/2 
logging frenzy in Cambodia as loggers sought to avoid UN Resolution 792. 
The recommendation is bizarre in that it does nothing to cut timber/arms 
links, it fails to address the issue of timber-funded militias or to 
prevent the haemorrhaging of timber revenue from the state. All the 
recommendation does, is to suggest a different and ill-thought out industry 
strategy, which falls outside the mandate of the UN Panel of Experts.

"The UN Security Council has to consider that if timber export sanctions 
are not imposed on Liberia, the logging companies involved in arms 
trafficking and state revenue loss will continue to contribute to regional 
insecurity. The humanitarian impact of this, and the destruction of 
Liberia's forests, will far outweigh the humanitarian impacts of short-term 
job losses. The report of the UN Panel of Experts confirms that the logging 
industry remains a major problem for regional insecurity, but does nothing 
to seriously address the problem." said Patrick Alley of Global Witness. 
"We are calling on the UN Security Council to impose a complete and 
immediate embargo on Liberian timber exports".

Global Witness, PO Box 6042, London N19 5WP. Tel: +44 20 7272 6731; Fax: 
+44 20 7272 9425; mail at globalwitness.org <mailto:mail at globalwitness.org>; 
www.globalwitness.org



UN REPORTS' UNDERMINE ITS OWN STANCE ON LIBERIA


INTRODUCTION The United Nations Security Council is currently reviewing the 
sanctions regime on Liberia, in pursuance of Resolution 1343 (2001) and, in 
particular, whether to extend the sanctions regime to include exports of 
timber.  The as yet unreleased report of the UN Panel of Experts confirms, 
as did the report of the Panel of Experts on Sierra Leone,  that the 
Liberian logging industry continues to be linked to the arms trade.

Given that timber industry and resultant revenue is essential to the Taylor 
regime, that it continues to be linked to the arms trade and to the 
maintenance of armed militias, that timber revenues do not benefit the 
Liberian population as a whole and that the damage to the country's forests 
is irreparable, the argument for sanctions is strong. However, the 
recommendations of the UN Expert panel on Liberia relating to timber, if 
adopted, will have a severely detrimental effect, whilst failing to address 
the key issues the Panel was established to address.

Furthermore, the Report of the Secretary-General in pursuance of paragraph 
13(a) of resolution 1343 (2001) concerning Liberia, contains numerous 
inaccuracies relating to the potential humanitarian impact of timber 
sanctions, in addition to other general misconceptions. This briefing 
addresses these two issues.

The Report of the Panel of Experts appointed in pursuance of Resolution 
1343 (2001)

The United Nations Panel of Experts on Liberia has made two recommendations 
regarding Liberia's timber industry: firstly, that the Liberian government 
and the IMF revue timber revenues and, secondly:

- The United Nations should impose a ban on all round log exports from 
Liberia from July 2002 and strongly encourage local operators to diversify 
into wood processing before that date.

This latter recommendation is contrary to the raison d'etre of the 
sanctions regime and is almost unbelievably inappropriate. The UN Expert 
Panel was, amongst its tasks, mandated:

...to further investigate possible links between the exploitation of 
natural resources and other forms of economic activity in Liberia, and the 
fuelling of conflict in Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries, in 
particular those areas highlighted by the report of the Panel of Experts 
established pursuant to resolution 1306 (2000);.

The Panel of Experts recommendation does nothing to prevent 'the fuelling 
of conflict in Sierra Leone and neighbouring countries'. It does not 
address the issues of regional security, the links between the timber trade 
and the arms trade, which the UN Expert Panel confirm still exist, or the 
use of armed militias by logging companies.  What it does is to recommend a 
shift in an industry practice, without any expert study or requirements to 
achieve certain standards, in the context of a report and sanctions regime 
designed to end regional instability.

The recommendation will, if adopted, have severe ramifications.

*       It will result in a logging frenzy similar to that caused by the 
log export ban demanded by UN Resolution 792 across the Thai/Cambodian 
border in 1991/2, with long-term irreparable impacts on Liberia's forests. 
(In Cambodia, loggers rushed to export logs, before 792 came into effect, 
resulting in greater forest destruction in one year than in the entire 
previous decade put together. Subsequently, to exploit the loophole in 792, 
logs were rough sawn to render them as legitimate exports which, using 
primitive processing techniques, resulted in significant timber wastage).

*       By delaying the imposition of a log export ban until July 2002, the 
recommendation clears the way for this mass exploitation to take place 
during the dry (cutting) season, which begins in November.

*       The recommendation does not address the key issues. The timber 
companies involved in arms trading will be able to continue as before, but 
will simply have to increase their investment in Liberia to adhere to the 
recommendation. Vast revenues (US$100 million in 2000) will continue to be 
available to the industry and the regime, for off-budget expenditures.

*       The two logging companies best placed to develop, or already in 
possession of in-country processing facilities, and thereby able to conform 
to the UN recommendation are OTC and BIN.  Both of these companies are 
amongst the foremost named by the Panel of Experts for their close links to 
the arms trade.


The Report of the UN Secretary-General in pursuance of paragraph 13(a) of 
resolution 1343 (2001) concerning Liberia

This report states "a ban on Liberian timber exports would probably cause 
the loss of up to 10,000 relatively well-paid jobs. With an average of nine 
dependents for each employed person and a probably higher than average 
number of dependents per employed person in this more affluent economic 
sector, a figure of 90,000 to 95,000 people losing their primary means of 
support is expected."  Whilst the loss of timber related jobs would damage 
a small section of the population, the Secretary-General's report contains 
numerous inaccuracies and misconceptions, and ignores the more serious 
humanitarian impacts of the continuation of the logging industry. Liberia's 
timber industry at present is employing far below the prewar capacity, 
which we believe is the basis for the employment figures given above. The 
Secretary-General's dependency figure is the worst inflated as it 
completely contradicts the fact that the overwhelming majority of OTC's 
workforce especially its militia, cooks, maids, janitors, etc are mostly 
ex-combatants and young adults and teenagers with little or no family 
responsibility. The OTC is the largest employer in the logging industry and 
these groups make up the majority of their [Liberian] workforce.

Under prewar conditions, the logging industry would employ approximately 
9,000 to 10,000 people, with an estimated 8,000 to 8,500 of these jobs 
including drivers, chain saw operators, middle level managers etc., going 
to Liberians. However, due to several factors including the introduction of 
Malaysian laborers and the logging companies' preference for Ivorians and 
other nationals, the number of Liberians actually employed is far less. 
This has been documented by various Liberian newspapers and confirmed by a 
cross section of the Liberian citizenry. In various meetings with President 
Taylor, ordinary citizens have raised concerns about the employment 
preferences enjoyed by other nationals at the disadvantage of 
well-qualified and experienced Liberians. However, when questioned on this 
subject Charles Taylor chose to defend the companies saying "Liberians are 
unable to operate the modern equipment been used now in the industry" a 
further confirmation of the fact that Liberians are being denied skilled 
jobs in the logging industry.

According to an independent investigation conducted by a knowledgeable 
Liberian, the industry employs an estimated 6,150 people with Liberians 
making up about 68.82% of the total; approximately 4,233 people, less than 
half the figure quoted in the Secretary-General's report. A large part of 
this information derived directly from the personnel departments of various 
logging companies, including OTC. In an interview with Global Witness a 
retired Liberian forester, said that although "all logging companies in 
Liberia are supposed to be employing at least one professional forester, by 
this I don't mean tree measurer, I mean someone who has at least a first 
degree in forestry or have attended the Mano River Forestry Institute. But 
right now, I don't think this rule is being followed... at the moment, I 
have my doubts that that is happening and that worries me...".

Global Witness' follow-up investigation also focused on job security, 
employment practices, salary structures, households' dependency on income 
etc at OTC.  This investigation found that the OTC employs approximately 
1,733 Liberians in its entire operations. However, more than 75% of the 
employees are laid off during the peak of the rainy season from late June 
through late September every year. For these three months, no benefits or 
salaries are paid and there is no guarantee that an employee will 
automatically return to his/her previous job when active operations begin 
in early October.  Furthermore, approximately 95% of the Liberian employees 
have not signed any legal contract with the company's management and no 
employment letters were served to them when they were hired. There is 
absolutely no job security for the majority of Liberians presently working 
at the OTC; people get hired and fired as they come.

Over 886 (51.1%) of OTC's Liberian employees earn between U$75 - U$85 per 
month, while 510 (29.4%) earn between U$50 - U$75; thus, in total, an 
estimated 82% of the Liberian workers are paid less than U$90 per month. 
These people work at least 10 hours daily - seven days a week, under poor 
and hazardous conditions. Liberians' attempts to challenge these conditions 
are undermined by the availability of unemployed workers from the Ivory 
Coast who are willing to accept whatever salaries logging companies in 
Liberia offer them. The Ivorians accept these conditions and low salaries 
because at home they would otherwise be without jobs because of the 
commercial exhaustion of Cote d'Ivoire's forests; a fate that awaits 
Liberians too if the UNSC fails to take action now.

For the three years that Charles Taylor has been in power, his government 
has placed his personal security and extravagant lifestyle above the 
welfare of the Liberian people. In 2000 the timber industry generated over 
US$106m in undeclared revenue, compared to the government's official 
declaration of US$6.6 million.

Global Witness has recommended that the international community steps up 
its humanitarian efforts in Liberia while pressure is exerted on the 
government to force it to abandon its destabilizing activities. 
International and local NGOs have done a tremendous job helping the people 
of Liberia - what they need is support.

For example, in June 2001 elders and residents of Nizwein (Rivercess 
County), the town that hosts OTC's largest operation centre (Km 85) outside 
Buchanan, met with Taylor and asked him to prevail on the OTC management to 
provide electricity for their clinic to enable them to establish vaccine 
storage facilities. He [Taylor] immediately instructed Joseph Wong and John 
Teng, both top executives of the OTC who were in attendance, to address the 
community's needs. No action was ever taken, even though the OTC camp is 
less than a mile from the clinic and could have easily linked the clinic to 
its 24hr power supply.

It was only in early October 2001 that MERLIN (an international NGO) 
provided solar system for the electrification of the clinic, which was 
constructed by another NGO Medicin du Monde in 1998. To date MDM continues 
to provide essential drugs and other supplies for the clinic - the 
government has not provided any significant support to this clinic.

Surprisingly, the Secretary-General's report also speaks very highly of the 
OTC hospital in Buchanan. This hospital was not established as an outreach 
program or a low cost medical facility and it is not serving as one. The 
majority of the residents of Buchanan cannot afford the high cost of 
treatment at the hospital - they still attend the Liberian government 
hospital even though it has virtually collapsed due to neglect by the 
government. This collapse is exacerbated by the fact that many of the 
nursing staff at the government hospital now work at the OTC clinic which, 
unlike their previous employer, does actually pay its staff.

The OTC hospital, which was initially started as a clinic, only came to 
prominence when the cross border conflicts between RUF/ Liberian army on 
one side and the Guinean army/ LURD rebels on the other hand in the border 
regions of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea intensified in 2000. By then it 
had become a de facto military hospital, following the closure of the JFK 
hospital in Monrovia, because wounded RUF fighters being treated at the JFK 
had caught the attention of the international media.

It must be stressed that instead of addressing the concerns of the UNSC, 
the Liberian government has elected to launch a sustained smear campaign 
against the UN, exiled opposition leaders and NGOs, including Global 
Witness and Amnesty International. This not only raises concerns about the 
security of humanitarian workers and UN personnel in Liberia, but also the 
future of Liberia's own democracy. The UNSC must not allow the people of 
Liberia to be used as human shields by Taylor against the imposition of a 
ban on timber. Sub-regional peace and security is far more important and 
crucial to the peoples of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.



---------------------
Global Witness, PO Box 6042, London N19 5WP. Tel: +44 20 7272 6731; Fax: 
+44 20 7272 9425; mail at globalwitness.org <mailto:mail at globalwitness.org>; 
www.globalwitness.org



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